Weekend

Well, with a cold snap upon us, we decided that going out to run any errands would not be a good idea. Thankfully, I had all the groceries delivered and didn’t need to go anywhere. So I spent the weekend catching up with my Reader, watching movies with my beloved and the kids, and making bone broth.

And by cold snap, I mean in the teens, with wind chills even lower. Tomorrow we’re supposed to have wind chills near –30! That’s just not right! Temperatures like that should be illegal. I’m just sayin’!

So we’re hunkered down and hatches are battened as best they can be. I’ve got plenty of candles, and lots of broth for those chilly days ahead.

How do you react to super cold weather? Do you “hibernate” like we do, or does it invigorate you, like a polar bear?

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What did you do over the weekend? I intended to get caught up with a lot of my online reading. Oh how deluded I was! LOL

Instead, we did some errand running, which was really a spontaneous thing. But I have a new mousepad! See? <<– I was walking around the office supply store and I kept hearing my name being called and I found this mousepad was the one calling me. I mean check it out – butterflies, roses, shoes, pink! My name, right there! :D Could it be more me?

Then we watched a couple of movies, which was fun. Saw some good ones too – Hereafter and Frankenweenie. Hereafter was a slow mover but the story was really interesting. Frankenweenie was really fun, a lot of homage going on in that one too, as well as being cute for the kids. The Bambi Meets Godzilla reference made me laugh.

Naturally I got behind on the household stuff I wanted to do. Isn’t that what weekends are for, really? Not getting done what you’d hoped? LOL I spend my life catching up – Lord only knows what would happen to me if I actually ever did get caught up. I bet my head would explode.

So we begin week 2 of our new schedule and so far so good. The kids seem to be adapting, I seem to be adapting, although a bit slower than the kids. Maybe a couple more weeks for me. Hopefully!

This was our sunrise this morning. So nice to see sunlight! We had a touch of snow over the weekend and it was mostly gray and overcast. Hello Mr Golden Sun! Please shine down on me!

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I suppose you could say the weekend started early for me. The kids decided on Thursday night that they really wanted Friday off, so they did their Friday school on Thursday before they went to bed.

Turns out that was a great decision to make because my girlfriend called me on Friday and said she had some free time and could she come up? Now, since she lives so far, we usually plan our visits in advance, but she had some things come up for her so she wanted to make a more spontaneous visit. Since the kids had done their school work the night before, we were free. She brought us a ton of soap she made and I can’t even begin to tell you how awesome it smells. My skin, and my nose, are so happy. :) I call it my skin candy for a reason.

On Saturday, we took the kids to a forest preserve to check out some of the beautiful autumn colors. Trees were shedding leaves on the way home from out little outing, so it looks like we made it just in time. Next weekend all those trees might be naked. But I did get some pics, and a few little videos of the leaves and us going, “Oooh, did you see that one?” But the kids had a good time and that’s what matters most to us. 🙂

Plus, while it’s still a bit early to tell, it looks like Darc may have found his dream keyboard. I swear, he has a keyboard store right next to his desk, so he can change keyboards like other people change their socks. Both of us are pretty weird about our keyboards – and it’s a known fact that I have a pen thing. But Darc’s even pickier about keyboards than I am. Considering he makes one living at them, and hopes to make another living at them, it’s pretty important that he finds one he’s good with for several hours a day. He had a look of pure bliss when he plugged his new one in and started typing on it.

As a bonus, the weather was gorgeous this weekend. And that is an extremely rare thing around here, so it was frosting on the cake.

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The world’s handsomest, most beautiful boy got glasses over the weekend. The glasses, when we first saw them, were mixed in with the other glasses in the store. When they’re on his face, they’re the most stylin’ glasses around. He makes those glasses look good. All the other glasses were so jealous.

Seriously, my boy has a very intellectual look to him when he wears his new glasses. The frames he picked out suit him wonderfully. He was so wowed that he could see so many things much clearer. Of course, his baby sister had to get in on the act too. When we asked him if he could read the sign across the street, he asked, “Which one?” The MiniNess had to pop off with, “The one that says blah-blah-blah.” Oh, that kid! LOL

So now the handsome prince can actually see how handsome he is!

*****

I also discovered over the weekend that our computers came already loaded with speech recognition software. A year and a half and I had no idea! Here I was reading the comments on some Dragon Naturally Speaking software, and one of the commenters mentioned the stuff that came bundled with his Windows 7 computer. That made my eyebrows shoot up! Bundled? Windows 7? Seriously? I did a search and sure enough, there it was! So naturally I had to play with that for a while, but I didn’t spend any money buying software I didn’t know I already had! How sweet is that?

*****

We had a bit of excitement last week. Seems someone in the central part of the building thought it would be funny to pull the fire alarm. Oh yeah, that was a real thigh slapper. Apparently, all the units that are in a single building have a fire alarm in them, in addition to the smoke detectors that are in each unit. But when my smoke detector goes off, only mine does, not anyone else’s. For the fire alarm however, they are all connected and everyone’s in the building went off. I went outside to see what I could see when the flashing lights appeared and some some poor little old lady looking helpless, so I tried to help her out of the way and reassure her that nothing was actually on fire. I felt bad for the poor firemen who had to suit up and come out on a hot muggy night. All for nothing! The worst part is realizing that it must have been someone who lives here, or knows someone who lives here, because the only way to get into the building is with a key.

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On the homefront, Darc did some outlining, which is always fun for us. Now the first 2 books in the (formerly known as) GhostHunters series are outlined and ready to be written. Yes, that means JD and Dillon will be back! Seriously exciting! I’ve missed those characters!

So now Darc has a plethora of stories he can plug into and get going on at his whim. Yay!

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Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a picture of a hot water heater like this one spewing water all over the place? I guess anyone who’s experienced that, like we did this weekend, doesn’t stop to think of taking a picture in the moment. The initial thoughts, aside from curse words, generally tend to be along the lines of “What do we do?!” and “Where’s the bucket?!”

My son was fixing himself something to eat when he said, “Do you hear that?” Darc and I stopped what we were doing and I went toward the kitchen to investigate. At first, I thought it might be a hose on the fridge or something. But no. Then I thought maybe the washing machine … but on the way to the washer, I passed by the water heater closet and realized where the sound of running water was coming from. I opened the door – and remember the light in there blew out a long time ago so it’s kind of dark – and saw that it was raining inside the closet. For a split second I thought it might be coming from the neighbors upstairs but then I realized it was coming from that little expansion tank on the top of the water heater. And I mean! It was like someone turned on a faucet almost full blast! Water everywhere! And coming fast! The expansion tank somehow sprung 3 or 4 leaks simultaneously. From the top, from the bottom, from the side, the water blitzed us.

I tried calling the office and kept getting sent to their voicemail system. Well I didn’t have time to wait around for that! So I threw on some clothes and ran over there.

Wouldn’t you know, the lady was signing a contract with some new tenants. I didn’t want to interrupt, but I had to interrupt so I stood there trying to look frantic. It didn’t really stretch my acting skills. She asked me what was wrong and all I said at first was that I had an emergency. I was afraid to blurt out something that might potentially cost them a client. Hearing a current tenant talk about a serious problem surely isn’t good business. But she asked me without leaving her desk, so I answered.

Boy howdy did she get up fast! I felt bad for the poor couple sitting there with their newborn but I had a downpour in my unit! And a husband doing his best to catch what he could in a bucket.

Well wouldn’t you know. The guys in the maintenance crew were running a float in a parade today, for the holiday coming up, and the office lady had no idea who was on call and every person she called didn’t answer. She left messages for like 5 guys before someone finally called her back.

Eventually we were able to get the water shut off. The valve was kind of stiff, Lord only knows the last time anyone turned it. Eventually someone came in to take off the part that was leaking and put a temporary seal on it until we can get a new expansion tank put on tomorrow. Eventually we had warmish water again. They want to keep the heat minimized so it doesn’t scald them when they change out the tank thing, so I can’t turn it up high. *sigh* You know, that’s really way more excitement than I need in a year, let alone a week or a day!

And of course, it happens on a day when I really need a lot of hot water, what with baths and laundry and dishes, oh my.

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The goal, initially, was for both Darc and me to get new computer chairs this year. Him, because we thought it would help with his back problems. Me, because I’ve had back problems in the past, tailbone issues actually that seem to be healed now thank the Lord, but my chair is 7 years old and it’s time for a new one. My chair tilts funny (to the left, horrors! ) because I tried to compensate for the tailbone problems I had when I got it.

So, happy little wannabe chair buyers we are, we hit the office store with the intent of bringing home some back relief for Darc. He found a chair, felt profound relief on his back while sitting in the chair in the store, so we wanted to take it home. But they didn’t have any in stock, so we ordered one to have delivered a few days later. The pain relief would have to wait!

Tuesday came and the man dropped off a huge box, which I promptly opened and spent the following hour or so putting the chair together. I really wanted my husband to be able to come home from work and just relaxxxxxx. But we had errands to run that night so he didn’t get to test drive it until Wed. He came home from work that night, sat in his chair, and … cried out in pain.

Ummm, that wasn’t quite the reaction I was hoping for.

I went to the store’s website and discovered that their chairs were on a deep discount, which we didn’t get, and then I came to the conclusion that we’d been sent the wrong chair. Darc sat in several at the store that night and it was probably just an honest mistake the salesguy made when he grabbed the ticket off the chair to check the stock. Could have happened to anyone, right? We wanted the 3rd one down the row, he grabbed the ticket off the 2nd one down. Crap happens.

So we decided to return the chair we had and see if the right chair was still available.

Which meant I had to disassemble the chair.

[Do you still have flashbacks of that robot yelling “No disassemble!” whenever you hear that word, or is it just me?]

Anyway, I figured it would be a piece of cake. Easy together, easy apart, right?

Not so much!

The store told us we’d have to put the chair back in the box and when I tried to take the metal base off the wheel setting, it wouldn’t budge! I huffed and puffed, did the ol’ thing where you brace your feet on one part and then pull, but those pieces were doggone fused together!

Well, fury doesn’t begin to describe how I felt but we won’t go there! Suffice it to say my kids will have some hilarious memories to laugh about one day. Out of my hearing. 🙄

We took the chair back anyway, in pieces, and exchanged it for the one we felt was the one we were supposed to get in the first place. Since it was on sale for an awesome price, I decided I’d get one for me too, because the 2 chairs together were hardly more than the other chair was by itself. I mean, score a deal when you can, right?

Somehow we managed to get both chair boxes into our vehicle and got them home and the next day I put them together. Really, putting them together is the easiest part of the whole thing.

I sat in mine and … you know, it’s a lot higher than it was in the store, even with the pneumatic thing all the way down. My feet won’t even touch the ground. I actually had to go get an old pair of platform sandals I have and wear those just to keep the seat front from cutting off the circulation in my legs where it presses against my thighs.

Hmm.

You know, that really wasn’t part of my chair plans.

And then, despite the platform shoes, my back started getting twitchy and twingy, even after I put the lumbar support all the down. It was just pressing against the wrong spot on my back and hurting more than helping.

When Darc got home and sat down, he had about 5 minutes of relief and then his back started screaming. *heavy sigh* He spent almost the entire weekend playing musical chairs between his new chair, my old chair, and the couch, trying to find relief. Oddly enough, after a couple days of this, his back did seem to settle down a bit in the new chair but at this point, I don’t know if he should keep trying to get his back to develop an acquired taste for the new chair or take the chair back and try again someplace else.

I’ve gone back to my old chair. I tried to tighten some of the screws and that seems to have helped a bit, but for me, I’m thinking I’ll just wait on the new chair thing. Really, I wouldn’t even be in the market for a new chair if not for the tilt on the old one, but I can live with a little tilt. Heck, I’ve been living with it for years now anyway, what’s a few more months until I can find one I really, really, really like that fits me as well as this one does, right?

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Can you imagine how hard it is, for a man who has chronic back pain, to shop for chairs? All that getting up and sitting down! Agony. And then I saw his face when he sat down in one particular chair. That chair should arrive at my home tomorrow and if I get the same look on Darc’s face that I got in the store, it’ll be so worth it.

I know a chair is not a cure-all, but I am hoping it’s a step in the right direction for his back pain.

We also picked up some of those plastic mats to protect the carpet under your chair and the smell is killing me. It’s an intense combo of plastic, vinyl, and rubber. It has an almost skunk-y kind of smell. I’m hoping it’s done off-gassing or whatever it’s doing, soon!

In case no one noticed, (bahahaha!) I haven’t really done any posting over at the “new” domains pretty much since we got them. Setting up the site was fun, but posting over there is a royal PITA. My husband was much more dedicated to it than I was, but even he gave up. We can’t switch hosts until March, so I’m here at WP until then, at least. After that, well I guess it depends on what kind of hosting we find.

My husband, the keyboard diva, feasted his eyes on yet another keyboard over the weekend that he had to try out. I swear, we have a veritable keyboard buffet here now! LOL He practically has one for every mood. Honestly though, I don’t mind much because to me they’re like the tools of his trade. A mechanic needs wrenches, a butcher needs knives, a painter needs brushes, and a writer needs keyboards. I have to be careful for my own sake though. I’m not too far behind him when it comes to being a diva about keyboards myself. I found one that made my fingers itchy when we were at the store so I went ahead and picked it up. So far, it’s pretty nice. It’s a lot like the one I was using before, but it has that ergonomic curve to it so it fits my hands better. Fewer typos, yay! It’s amazing, really, how much having a keyboard that fits makes you actually want to type. I’ve long had a thing about collecting pens too, so I guess it goes right along with my own writerly inclinations. I have the heart for writing fiction, just not the talent.

I made a theme for my computer desktop. You’d think with the 150+ themes I’ve got that I’d find one to fit my mood, but no. So I made my own. Hundreds of pictures, all having something yellow about them. I was craving some cheerful, sunny, happy yellow and now I have lots. My eyes are happy now. Yes, I admit I have a theme obsession. Way back when we had Windows 98, I found this one program that had a ton of themes and would actually change them on whatever schedule you chose. That was pretty cool.

Still no apparent change since talking to management about the neighbor’s dog. I haven’t even seen the lady who’s supposed to live there, just her daughter and the baby, and now it seems the daughter’s boyfriend – or baby-daddy I guess – seems to have moved in. The dog still makes a lot of noise, and I don’t know if management has even found the opportunity to talk to the lady. *sigh*